Visitors Are Back In Force

Tourist-tax Collections, Airport Traffic Set Records In April

With the economy revving, tourists are filling hotels -- and local tax coffers -- and boosting traffic at Orlando International Airport.

Orange County's resort-tax collections for April soared 23 percent from the same month a year ago, setting a record for April, Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie said Thursday.

In a separate report, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority said airport traffic in April also grew at double digits and set a record for that month. The 22.3 percent increase, to 2.8 million arrivals and departures, was driven by strength in both domestic and international travel.

Domestic passenger traffic rose 21.89 percent to 2.6 million and international traffic jumped 29.56 percent to 185,667, compared with the same month a year ago. During the month, Southwest Airlines added eight weekly flights to and from Chicago's Midway airport, bringing the total to 22 a week, and US Airways Express started service to Pittsburgh with 14 flights a week.

The previous April record was 2.7 million in April 2000, said airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell.

With theme parks humming and the pace of travel increasing, Haynie said Orange County's 5 percent tax on hotels and short-term rentals "continues to show strong results" in a recovery that began late last year and has gained momentum heading into summer.

Haynie said the $10.9 million collected in April was the highest for that month since the tax was enacted in the 1970s. The money is primarily used to finance expansion of the Orange County Convention Center and to pay for tourism promotions.

Cumulative collections for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 are running 16.3 percent ahead of the same seven-month period a year ago, Haynie said, when the economy was still recovering from the 2001 recession and terrorist attacks.

Hotel operators in the Orlando area are pleased with the April record and "looking forward to a busy summer season," said Richard Maladecki, president of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association.

May was also good, Maladecki said, though not as strong as April, and the balance of the summer appears positive. "The caveat is that people are still booking later, so we really don't have the numbers."

The rebound in hotel revenue, he said, is a reflection of improvements in both leisure and business travel.

The business-travel sector lagged in the recovery, but a pickup in spending during the winter and early spring helped boost attendance at Orange County Convention Center trade shows.

Trade shows and conventions generally decline in size and number throughout the South during the summer, and rebound in the fall and winter. Leisure travel, by contrast, peaks in the summer because of family vacations.

The April resort-tax record follows an even stronger March, when collections of the resort tax hit an all-time monthly high of $12.17 million. That surpassed the $12.14 million record set in March 2000 before the 2001 recession and terrorist attacks.

Haynie noted that the increases are significant because they are not just good showings on a percentage basis relative to a weak year, but are surpassing the boom years of the 1990s in actual dollars.